Well, I changed my mind... Don't worry. I'm still doing my 365 days, but I changed my mind about the start date. I figured that I'd be done just about at the end of October with my prep, so why waste time waiting for it. I'll start my 365 on November 1st instead of January 1st.
Some of my inspiration for this journey is the settlers and pilgrims and people who lived here 100 years ago and had to plan every meal for their winters here. I'm sure it was even more challenging for them because some people didn't have close neighbors to barter with and rely on for losses of crops or unforeseen circumstances. Some of the history I've read, it was pretty scary for them because there were children to take care of. I don't have to worry about other mouths to feed. It will only be mine. My boyfriend Mike doesn't have any desire to go through this with me, so I'll need a lot less food...
Speaking of a lot less food. I've gone on little spurts of eating only raw, fresh, plant based food before, and I noticed a peculiar thing. I didn't need as much food. I feel that when your body is nourished and has all the vitamins, minerals, and hydration it needs, you feel satisfied and don't need huge meals. Most of us go around being hungry all the time because our bodies are under nourished. This is caused by just eating the wrong things all together or, even worse, the food we think is healthy is totally lacking most of it's nutrients because it's grown in poor soil with toxic chemicals and then it sits on a shelf or in a refrigerator for who knows how long.
That is why I really think I will have the worst time at the beginning. Once my body gets acclimated to being nourished properly, I'll ease into this pretty easily. At least that is what I'm thinking. I'll be prepping beforehand though to keep myself detoxed from all the ice cream I love to eat in the summer.
As my vegetables are growing and getting ready to harvest, I'm making mental notes of the things I'll be canning together or preserving so I can make my meals easier. One of the things I am looking forward to is something my sister Julia started making probably 20 years ago now, and I've made it and loved it ever since. Very simple. Chopped tomatoes, zucchini and onion and sauteed in a pan. I especially love this as a sauce for pasta, but I won't have any pasta, so I'll eat it as is. I can can this stuff, or I can freeze it already cooked. I can just heat it up. Easy.
Another things I've been thinking about is getting used to eating non-conventional breakfast foods. I won't have any bread of any kind, so I need to get used to eating vegetable for breakfast. I really love steamed mustard greens for breakfast though. Smoothies are another option for breakfast but I won't have bananas, coconut oil or chia seeds or other things I normally use in my green drinks. I will have blackberries hopefully and possibly kefir if I can barter for milk.
I'm also going to barter first thing for milk so I can make butter. I have a few places in mind that I can get raw milk and cream. I just hope they'll take what I barter instead of money.
Yesterday I made homemade apple cider vinegar with apples that were falling off my tree. I didn't want the apples to go to waste because I may not have that many so I chopped them all up and put them in jars of water. Normally you add sugar to get the fermentation started faster, but in my 365 days, I won't have sugar. It will ferment, it just may take 6 to 8 weeks instead of 4. I checked them this morning and they are bubbling already, so it won't take long. Vinegar will be useful to preserve some of my food and for getting some of the nutrition I'll need for the winter. Anything fermented has great amounts of vitamin B and other great stuff.
Until next time.
